THE HOLOCAUST 1933 – 1945 Introduction to The Holocaust

THE HOLOCAUST WAS THE SYSTEMATIC, BUREAUCRATIC MASS MURDER OF MORE THAN SIX MILLION JEWS BY THE NAZI REGIME AND ITS COLLABORATORS

Holocaust History This introductory lesson will be used to inspire more student research into The Holocaust. This lesson will span six major periods of the Holocaust Era.

Pre-War Europe 1933 German Occupied Territory U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

Hitler Meets Hindenburg in Potsdam Oil on Canvas Created by K-12th grade and College-Age Students In 1933, Chancellor Hitler greets President von Hindenburg in Potsdam, Germany, with an outward appearance of deference toward the heavily decorated ruler whose government and order he was in the process of absolutely overthrowing. This picture was distributed nationally and internationally, portraying an utterly deceitful impression to the world of the Nazi ideology and of Hitler's intent to establish himself as the supreme law of the land.

Hitler Youth Oil on Canvas Created by K-12th grade and College-Age Students From age ten to seventeen, youth were required to join Hitler Youth, an organization that provided physical and mental training to prepare these youth for service in the SA, SS, and the military. After the war, many of these youth were required to complete “de-Nazification” programs to rid them of this hatred and teach them more democratic ways.

Nazis Approach Jewish Men Oil on Canvas Created by K-12th grade and College-Age Students These Hasidic Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto are being humiliated by Nazi officers as they are forced to take their hats off as a form of surrender to these cruel officials, who stand mockingly imposing their assumed superiority.

Humiliation of Jews Oil on Canvas Created by K-12th grade and College-Age Students In towns all over Europe, honorable Jews were forced by officials to scrub entire sidewalks and streets with small brushes while they were laughed at and scorned by large crowds of pro-Nazis.

Hungarian Roundup: Women’s Hands Raised Oil on Canvas Created by K-12th grade and College-Age Students During the summer of 1944, Hitler invaded Hungary and took hundreds of thousands of Jewish-Hungarians as prisoners. As a consequence of Hitler's invasion, multitudes of Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz.

Able-Bodied Men Oil on Canvas Created by K-12th grade and College-Age Students Upon arrival at a concentration camp, Jews who were “fit for work” were put to work at many different tasks such as factory work, road construction, and land clearing. The work was extremely vigorous, yet the inmates were given very little food and received totally inadequate rest. The goal of such work was to eventually kill the men. Many dropped to their deaths while they worked, or walked to and from their work site.

The Final Solution Oil on Canvas Created by K-12th grade and College-Age Students The Nazi Regime and its collaborators created a systematic bureaucratic program for the mass murder of the Jews. The Nazi plan was calculated and premeditated to exterminate European Jewry. When the war was over in 1945, over six million Jews had been murdered through this organized, industrialized Nazi system.

Aftermath Oil on Canvas Created by K-12th grade and College-Age Students The liberation of the Jews from the concentration camps was an experience that coupled both intense joy and intense pain for those involved. The American generals, Patton, Eisenhower, and Bradley were horrified at what had been done to human beings by the Nazis. During April and May of 1945, one by one Buchenwald, Dachau, Mauthausen, Bergen-Belsen, and many other concentration camps were liberated.

Liberation Oil on Canvas Created by K-12th grade and College-Age Students Two airborne divisions, ten armored divisions, and twenty-three infantry divisions of the American army are highly honored for their bravery and heroism as they entered the concentration camps upon the defeat of the Germans, to face sights that were beyond imagination.

The Nuremburg Trials Oil on Canvas Created by K-12th grade and College-Age Students Twenty-two high-ranking Nazi leaders stood trial at the Palace of Justice in Nuremburg, Germany for their murderous acts, extermination, enslavement, deportations, and persecution on political, religious, and racial grounds and all other violations of law.

Sources Images courtesy of the WFCS Holocaust Museum Copyright © WFCS Holocaust Museum